


and if you could talk to me, tell me if it's so?

by BeauBrummellBaby



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: (and then he suddenly... isn't), Episode e73: Tryptich, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Kevin Whump, Kevin is mostly human, POV First Person, Pre-Canon, kevin is not human, my poor baby boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:41:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22901875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeauBrummellBaby/pseuds/BeauBrummellBaby
Summary: Kevin has faith in his town and himself.Unfortunately this faith is unfounded.
Relationships: (Past and/or implied), Kevin & Cecil Palmer
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	and if you could talk to me, tell me if it's so?

**Author's Note:**

> Uncharacteristic angst inspired by a discussion in the wtnv discord.
> 
> Tw: gore, eye trauma, discussions of human beings as property, and animal death

I don't usually look away from the sunrise. It's just not my style. Sunrises are like a smile from the sky, like a reminder that as long as the world government hasn't killed you in the night, everything is going to be okay.

There's a stray cat on my porch. He's got a few more eyes and tails than might be considered normal, but he pulls it off. He lets me scratch behind his ears, next to his spine ridge, and I feel his purr in my own throat.

Today is going to be a good day.

I don't usually look away from the sunrise, but today I look out west, over Night Vale. It's funny, I was never aware of that town's existence before! But there they are, just over the horizon. They're a lot like us, that Night Vale. They have a radio station, and that station has a host named Cecil. He's just like me! I wish I could meet him for real.

Maybe I will. Maybe after today.

I heard that StrexCorp wants to buy my radio station. Today is the day they're closing the deal. Or, it's the day they would, but I'm not going to let that happen. Cecil says it won't happen.

The cat stays on my porch, rolling and stretching his fluffy orange tentacles in the sun. I give him one last scratch under the chin before walking off to work.

There's a yellow helicopter hovering above my house, even after I leave. I smile at the ground anyways. The yellow helicopters won't be here forever. Cecil said so, and I believe him. I keep smiling, at the ground where the helicopters can't see it. I can't stop smiling.

Another yellow helicopter hovers above the radio station. It's been there for a few days now. That doesn't matter. It'll be gone soon.

I walk into my office and see Lauren. _Ugh_ , Lauren. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something off about her. Still, I smile at her as I pass. You can't be happy if you don't smile.

"Kevin, wait," Lauren stops me before I can get all my broadcast notes in order. "Station Management wants to talk to you."

I try to hide my shudder from her. "Will I have time?"

"Pfft, time." She brushes me off with a wave of the hand.

Admittedly, that hadn't been my best excuse. I just don't like lying. It makes me very unhappy to lie. So, I start smiling again and head toward Station Management's office.

"Kevin! Come sit down a moment!"

This isn't Station Management. This is... Daniel? From StrexCorp? Why is he here already?

Daniel smiles, a little too wide. A little blood drips from the corners of his mouth onto the desk. "Mr. Gershwin. You've been the voice of this town for... How long now?"

"Gosh, I don't know," I say honestly. "When did Leopold Barton retire again?"

"Who?"

Daniel doesn't know or care about the radio. That makes me unhappy.

"Anyways," he continues, a bit of blood now beginning to drip from his nose, "we here at StrexCorp are all about efficiency. You've been the voice of this town for so long, it's not going to be efficient to replace you. So, my visit today is a courtesy to let you know that, as we've bought the radio station, you came along with it!"

No. No. No no no no no no no. This isn't what Cecil said would happen. This isn't right!

Breathe, Kevin. Breathe, and smile. It will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end yet.

"And what if I refuse, or find a new job?"

Daniel laughs and smiles that unsettling mockery of a smile. "Why would you want to?"

I can't lie, but I can't tell the truth either.

Daniel shakes his head before I can answer. "Even if you did want to leave the radio station, you were acquired as part of it. So no matter where you are or what you do, StrexCorp still owns you."

I'm a human being, I think. And yet Daniel talks about buying and keeping and owning me like an object as casually as a normal person might talk about [the weather.](https://youtu.be/QzGWYShgmfk)

"Anyways, there's going to be some renovations to the station today, which you probably shouldn't be in the building for. Make sure you leave as soon as your broadcast is over, okay?"

Okay. I have time. I can use the time during my broadcast to plan what I'm going to do. I smile for real now.

Today is going to be a good day. I can't stop smiling.

My broadcast goes without a hitch! Not for me, anyways. I spend the pre-recorded bits fortifying my studio and myself. Whenever I'm live, I tap out a message in Morse code on my desk, asking the town to come to my aid. I'm sure they'll be here. Didn't Cecil say so? They're all listening. They'll be here.

I can hear a fleet of helicopters coming closer. Their rumbling would be drowning me out, if I was still talking. This wasn't what I expected, but I'm not worried. Who knows? Maybe the helicopters are being piloted by citizens coming to help me. In fact, I suspect little Tammy Finnegan is up there in one of those helicopters.

"Um, Mr. Gershwin?" My intern calls out as she taps on my shoulder.

"Please, Vanessa, you can call me Kevin."

"Right, Kevin, um, shouldn't you leave the building? I heard a demolition team is coming by soon."

It's so sweet of Vanessa to be concerned about me! I'd show the same concern for her, but it's unnecessary. Desert Bluffs Community Radio interns are all invincible, by virtue of their internships. Still, I smile at her. "I'm not worried, Vanessa. I'm sure I'll be fine."

I'm more than sure, though. I'm positive. That's the best thing to be.

I step outside and look out over Night Vale. Cecil is out there somewhere, listening for me. I won't let him down.

I can't stop smiling. Today is going to be a good day.

"Kevin Palmer Gershwin," booms a voice from one of the helicopters, "step away from the building."

I brace myself against the door. "No!" I shout back.

"Kevin, please," the voice calls back. Lauren. I really think I hate Lauren. "This is for your own good."

"You can't make me!"

"Oh, but we can." This time, the voice from the helicopter is Daniel. Daniel, whose helicopter is coming to land in front of my door. Daniel, who makes no attempt to conceal his fake smile or his knife. I feel my wings begin to unwrap from my arms in my nervousness.

Stay calm, Kevin. It's alright. Worst comes to worst, there's a switchblade tucked into my back pocket. I shouldn't have to use it. But it's there if this doesn't work.

"What do you want?" I try to keep my voice level. "I won't talk to you until you drop the knife."

Daniel looks down at his hands a little too casually. "This old thing? Didn't even realize I was still holding it." The knife drops, kicking up a cloud of dirt as it falls. Excited, my wings come all the way out, fluttering at my back. Cecil was right! This is going to be easy. "You're so friendly, Kevin," Daniel smiles, "that's good for a radio host. I take it you prefer hugs to handshakes?"

He comes in for a hug before I can say anything. It all happens so quickly. There's a moment where everything is right in the world, and then there's a slight tap on my back below the waist, and then I'm collapsed on my knees looking up at Daniel, who is holding my switchblade.

"It's really adorable how you thought you could fight back, Kevin."

On the ground, something looks like sheets of leaded glass on both sides of me. I reach out to touch one, but something burns my shoulder when my arm moves. It all clicks into place when I finally manage to touch one of the sheets.

My wings. He's taken all four of my wings.

"Hiding a knife while demanding I leave mine behind? Really Kevin, someone ought to teach you to play fair."

I look up at him and do my best to smile. This will all be over soon; it has to be. Cecil said so. So I smile at him. "I'm Kevin Palmer Gershwin. And you cannot scare me." My wings may be gone but I am not. Bear-like I must fight the course. I can't stop smiling.

"I don't want to scare you," Daniel says, dropping to my eye level and holding the knife blade under my chin. "I didn't even want to break you, not at first. But you haven't left me a choice."

I'm bleeding from the shoulders all the way down to my wrists and hips, where my wings would be resting if they weren't severed. Every move burns as hot desert sand flies into newly open wounds. "You didn't leave me a choice either," I choke. "I must do what is best for my town."

He digs the tip of the knife into the soft skin between my lower mandibles as he chuckles. "It's not your town, Kevin. It's ours. StrexCorp's. You could be part of that, if you stop fighting me."

"Daniel." I feel a force in the ground, as if the town is behind me as I speak. "I am the voice of this town, no matter whose it is. And as long as I have blood and breath to defend it, I will not surrender to you."

This is what I needed to say. Words are the greatest power awarded to humanity. And from wielding that power, the town will come to my rescue. This is how it ends. This is how we beat Strex.

This is how I come to feel a nudge at my throat, followed by a warm wetness and a stinging pain. When Daniel pulls his hand away, he is no longer holding the knife. His hand is covered in blood.

“Not so tough without your voice box, are you?”

I try to speak, but my voice has been replaced with a sharp sting. I realize with horror that the nudge against my Adam’s apple is the hilt of my own knife.

“I didn’t want to have to do that, Kevin. Now I have to get you a replacement voice box. Do you know how much of a pain in the ass for me that is?”

I don’t understand how this happened. I don’t know how or when we win this fight. The only thing I have left to hold on to is the faith that we will. So I smile at Daniel. With all that’s left of my faith and hope, I smile in the face of death.

Daniel doesn’t smile back. “You think this is funny? After everything you’ve made me do, you think this is funny?” He reaches for the knife in my neck, but withdraws his hand and takes a deep breath. “You _do_ have a lovely smile, Kevin.” He reaches behind himself for the knife he’d dropped earlier. “You should keep it.”

This is all the warning he gives before sinking the tip of the blade into the corner of my mouth and slashing toward my ear. I see the blood before I feel it drip down my face, my neck, my collar, falling onto my arms as I retch from pain so intense my brain hasn’t even processed it yet. He repeats on the other side before I can consider asking for mercy. Not that I physically could, not anymore.

It’s hard to breathe. I’ve lost so much blood, I’m not even sure I can see clearly. The world is a fever dream I can’t wake up from. And yet, after everything, I can’t help but smile when the same knife blade digs into my eye socket, next to my eye, and touches on the nerves behind it before severing them. The last thing I see is my eye, impossibly large and bloody, dropping into the desert sand before Daniel repeats the process. I can’t stop smiling. I pass out, but never stop.

* * *

I don’t usually look away from the sunrise. It’s just not my style. Now that I don’t have those pesky retinas in danger of being burned by sunlight, I never have to! Now that StrexCorp bought me along with my radio station and fixed me up after my little blunder, I never have to worry about hurting my new eyes! Thanks to StrexCorp, everything is going to be okay.

There’s a Strexpet on my porch. It’s got beady little black eyes that match mine, and I think we both pull it off pretty well. I scratch behind its stubby little ears for a second before it decides to turn from its meal and try to bite me, so I let it continue feasting on the remains of an orange tabby cat as I walk along.

Today is going to be a good day.

**Author's Note:**

> wasp!Kevin headcanon I believe originated with @CenedraRiva, check them out if you like Kevin/Charlevin


End file.
